SDSU savors home cooking

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Viejas Arena is worth points. It may not be Cameron or any of the more famous college basketball houses, but it’s become a mighty tough place to visit. And San Diego State’s men’s basketball team is very hard to play in it.

In fact, San Diego State’s men’s basketball eventually could prove tough to play anywhere. Matching up against them isn’t going to be easy for anybody.

They’re long, good, quick and extremely athletic. But on their own floor, with their band of crazies in tune — even with school on semester hiatus — they can dance to the music and move things along.

Going into last night’s Mountain West Conference opener against 14th- or 15th-ranked New Mexico (pick your poll), Aztecs coach Steve Fisher said the 14-1 Lobos might be the best team he’s seen in the league since he arrived on campus in 1999.

New Mexico is good, all right, and for a while last night they were very good, shooting like madmen — hitting five of their first seven threes in the early going — but in the end State played with its depth showing, and the result was a stirring 74-64 win.

Over the years, the Aztecs haven’t had overwhelming success against ranked teams, which is one of the reasons why at times they’ve been passed up by the NCAA despite outstanding records. State is 12-3 now, and this win isn’t going to hurt their stature.

Fisher doesn’t have the best shooting team — from the floor or the line — that he’s had during his tenure, and he knows full well that can damage his chances when March rolls around. And this is a club that still seems to be feeling its way, trying to find cohesion.

Having watched them play, I had the feeling they were deeper than last year’s team, which reached the NIT semis, but they didn’t seem to have the on-court leadership, nor could they play defense with the 2008-09 Aztecs, who seemingly had eight hands apiece.

But last night, point guard D.J. Gay had control of the floor, playing 36 minutes, scoring 12 points, handing out five assists and keeping the Lobos at bay. And defense is how this was won, especially in the second half, when New Mexico became so frustrated it missed wide open layups.

“They were tougher than us,” Lobos coach Steve Alford would say. “I told our guys this was going to be a tough place to win, and they didn’t do it. We couldn’t make shots, and once we started missing shots it affected how we guarded.”

Both teams shot well early, but that stopped. The visitors managed 28.6 percent from the floor in the second half, missing 8-of-10 three-point tries after hitting 6-of-11 in the first 20 minutes. After shooting 50 percent in the first half (and leading 38-36), State made just 11 of 28 of its tries following the break.

Asked if he thinks this ever will be a good-shooting team, Fisher said: “Probably not, no. But as long as we make enough of ’em, I can live with it.”

The key for this team, as it was with last year’s, will be defense, and the fact Fisher probably has the deepest group he’s had. He’ll need it. Last night, his best player, forward Billy White, went down with a high ankle sprain with 5:45 remaining in the first half. High ankle sprains are not good, and Fisher said there was immediate swelling.

“I’m worried about Billy,” the coach said. “We have to wait and see, but I’m not overly optimistic.”

Fisher told his team it needed to do three things defensively.

Calling New Mexico the best transition team in the MWC, State had to shut down the Lobos’ running game. They had zero fast break points.

He said they had to do a job guarding forward Darington Hobson. They did. He was 4-of-17 from the floor (12 points).

He said he they had to stop forward Roman Martinez. He scored 12.

The 64 points were the fewest New Mexico scored this season. State got 18 points and 15 rebounds from forward Malcolm Thomas, and a nice, sure all around game from forward Tim Shelton, whose knee problems have limited his minutes. But he logged 26 last night.

“It was a great effort from Thomas and we got, without question, the best effort from Shelton. He was good,” Fisher said.

“We were a real good defensive team tonight. We did the things we had to do and beat a real good basketball team. That was a good win. They’re good. They were away from The Pit, and if we want to battle for the league, we had to win at home.”